WCW 1996: Rebooking The New World Order

May 27, 1996: Scott Hall - last seen earlier the same month in WWF as Razor Ramon - shows up on Nitro and interrupts a match. He delievers his famous "You want a war?" speech and challenging the three best WCW wrestlers to a match. Two weeks later, Hall would be joined by Kevin Nash. The duo would be interviewed at Great American Bash in June by Eric Bischoff, to whom they denied WWF employment (for legal reasons) before powerbombed Bischoff through a stage. At Bash At The Beach in July, they faced Sting, Randy Savage, and Lex Luger with their third man as yet unrevealed. Late in the match, Hulk Hogan ran in to apparently help WCW only to legdrop Savage and reveal HE was the third man! Delivering another famous interview while being pelted with garbage, the New World Order was formed. Alledgely, Hogan as the third man wasn't set in stone till the PPV itself - Sting was seriously considered to be the defector.

More members joined, they fueded with the Horsemen and various other WCW wrestlers, and "bought" commercial space to show cut grainy, edgy promos. A fake Sting and War Games '96 lead to Sting's famous change in outfit and a year lurking in the rafters and pummelling people with baseball bats. The nWo got their own PPV (Souled Out in January 1997), won a team match at Uncensored '97 allowing them to challenge for any title at any time (a stipulation eventually forgotten), and ran roughshod over WCW with run-ins, group beatdowns, and spraypaintings of fallen wrestlers and the WCW Title (held by Hogan).

The peak of nWo angle should have been Starrcade '97: Sting at last faced Hogan. But things went awry with Nick Patrick botching a fast count and Bret Hart being involved. The nWo would split, fued, give us the infamous Fingerpoke Of Doom, reform, bloat in size, split again, reform again, and linger onward seemingly forever including a return in WWF due to Vince McMahon.

Somewhere the nWo angle - a great concept - went awry. Maybe it was the Fingerpoke, maybe it was Starrcade, maybe it was one member too many. Start from the beginning and do it your way. Hall and Nash must be the initial members of the group but everything else is up to you.

Shows: Monday Nitro (2 hours - live), WCW Saturday Night (2 hours - taped), monthly PPVs

Champions As Of May 27, 1996
WCW World Heavyweight Title	The Giant
WCW World Tag Team Tiles	Sting & Lex Luger
WCW United States Title	Konnan
WCW TV Title	Lex Luger
WCW Cruiserweight Title	Dean Malenko

Roster As Of May 27, 1996
Alex Wright Arn Anderson Billy Kidman Bobby Walker Chip Minton Chris Benoit (w/ Woman) Chris Canyon Cobra Craig Pittman (w/ Teddy Long) Dean Malenko Diamond Dallas Page Dick Slater Disco Inferno Eddie Guerrero El Gato (Pat Tanaka under a mask) Fit Finlay Hulk Hogan Jim Duggin Jim Powers Joe Gomez	Joey Maggs John Tenta Konnan Kurosawa (Manabu Nakanishi) Lex Luger Mark Starr Maxx Muscle Mike Winner Mr. JL (Jerry Lynn under a mask) Prince Iaukea Randy Savage Ric Flair (w/ Elizabeth) Rob Ruckus Steve Doll Sting The Booty Man (w/ The Booty Babe aka Kimberly Page) The Gambler The Mauler (Mike Enos) The Renegade V.K. Wallstreet
Fire & Ice (Scott Norton & Ice Train) Harlem Heat (Booker T & Stevie Ray) High Voltage (Kaos & Rage) Rock N Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) The Amazing French Canadians (Jacques Rougeau & Pierre Ouellet) The American Males (Marcus Alexander Bagwell & Scott Riggs)	The Faces Of Fear (Barbarian & Meng) The Nasty Boys (Jerry Sags & Brian Knobbs) The Outsiders (Scott Hall & Kevin Nash) The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge & Rocco Rock) The Steiner Brothers (Scott & Rick)
The Armstrong Brothers (Brad, Steve, & Scott Armstrong) The Blue Bloods ("Lord" Steve Regal, "Earl" Bobby Eaton, & "Squire" David Taylor - w/ Jeeves) The Dungeon Of Doom (Kevin Sullivan, The Giant, Meng, The Barbarian, Big Bubba Rogers, Konnan, & Hugh Morrus - w/ Jimmy Hart) The Horsemen (Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, & Arn Anderson) The Stud Stable (Jacques Rougeau, Pierre Ouellet, Dick Slater, Bunkhouse Buck, The Mauler - w/ Col. Rob Parker)

Future Signings:

In real life, the Great American Bash (your first PPV on June 16th) featured a tag match between the Horsemen (Flair and Anderson) and football players Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene (with Randy Savage in their corner). McMichael had been serving as a commentator for nearly a year and may become a full-time addition to your roster; Greene is still an active NFL player at this point.
June 1996 saw the beginning of the influx of luchadores into WCW, beginning with Rey Mysterio Jr. You may wish to likewise begin bringing in young talent from Mexico to fill out the Cruiserweight division.
Adam Copeland (the future Edge) wrestled a couple matches for WCW around this time under the name Damon Striker. He would not sign a developmental contract with WWF until 1997. You may wish to add him to your roster.
Glacier was being hyped by promos since April 1996, but had not yet debuted. He was originaly scheduled for debut in July but this was delayed until September because of the nWo's formation. This would start the infamous Blood Runs Cold angle. You should bring in Glacier sometime during 1996, but what you do with him is up to you.
Former WWF wrestlers who signed with WCW and debuted in the nWo: Ted Dibiase (August - manager role only), Syxx / Sean Waltman (September), Vincent (September).
Other notable WCW signings in 1996: Chris Jericho (August), Jeff Jarrett (October), Rowdy Roddy Piper (October), Jeff Jarrett (October), Ultimo Dragon (December).